Life's a Circus
by ChElFi
Summary: None of the Avengers have ever done anything half-way. Why would they expect their children to be any different? A/U, unless you like the idea of the team ending up friends and happy, then it could possibly be somewhat canon. ;) Rated K for fluff and fluffy stuff. :) One shot. Happy New Year!


**A/N: Well, since I couldn't write a nice Christmas story for you all, I decided to write a nice New Years' story. 'New Years' in the sense that it's New Years and I'm posting it. It doesn't take place on New Years, but there is smooching. :D**

**This story takes place in my own Captain Hill universe, the one I started way back in March. Was it March? Maybe February. Anyway, the timeline for this particular story is about a year after Maria was restored to the group following her year-long captivity. For those of you who are new to the story line, Tony &amp; Pepper have a daughter named Mia who is a few months older than Steve's &amp; Maria's daughter, Hope. Clint &amp; Natasha have an adopted son. His name is Gregory and he is about a year younger than the girls. So, in this story, Mia and Hope are seven and Gregory is six.**

**Consider this story a thank you to all you wonderful people who read my stories, especially those who leave comments, and particularly those with whom I correspond on a regular basis. It means so much to me that you are entertained by my little stories. I also would like to dedicate this story to two of my sons, aka Clint and Bruce, who are often a huge help to me either with story lines (Clint) or with challenging me to finish what I started or to do what terrifies the heck out of me (Bruce).**

**Happy New Year to you all.**

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"What do you suppose they're talking about?" Pepper leaned across the table to ask Maria.

The other woman looked down the table at the three children whose heads huddled together over the children's menu. There was silence followed by spurts of laughter in their little group and Pepper couldn't contain her curiosity, nor her concern. When her daughter, Mia, put her head together with Hope Rogers and Gregory Barton, somehow trouble always ensued. Pepper had found it best to be proactive.

"Should I listen?" Steve grinned and took a drink of his beer as he put his arm around his wife.

"No need," Natasha chimed in next to Steve as she snagged one of the menus the kids had set aside. She handed it to Pepper who looked at it but only became confused.

"I don't see what's so funny about the food," she commented. She looked back across the table when she heard Maria laugh.

"What?" she asked.

"Turn it over," her friend told her.

Pepper did so. She glanced at the games before her eyes landed on what she suspected the children were laughing about.

On one side of the games there were two columns to find your "circus name" using the first initials of your first and last names. Pepper looked for hers without thinking and began to chuckle.

"The Magnificent Human Cannonball."

"What?" Tony turned to her.

"And you're "The Astounding Spooky Magician,"" she said. The adults at the table chuckled along with her.

"Give me that," Tony said and snatched it from her hands.

"Tony, you're setting a bad example," she admonished.

"Look, if Cap doesn't know his manners by now, he's never gonna learn them," he quipped.

Steve laughed and shook his head.

"You sir," Tony said to his friend across the table. "You are "The Purple Magic Elephant.""

Now the adults began to erupt in laughter, much to the annoyance of the children, who cast them all dirty looks before going back to their discussion.

"Let me see that," Clint said next to Tony.

Tony handed him the page and Clint looked at it.

"You, my dear," he said to Natasha. "Are "The Atrocious Laughing Clown."

"Wait a minute," Natasha said. "Shouldn't I be a Magic Elephant like Rogers?"

"No," Clint replied. "I want you to be on my team."

Natasha stuck her tongue out at Clint in a very un-Natasha-like way.

"Oh," Clint said excitedly. "I'm the best. I'm "The AMAZING Laughing Clown."

"You're amazing alright," Natasha smirked as she crossed her arms on her chest.

"Well, the clown part's right anyway," Maria said as she laughed at Clint, who in turn stuck his tongue out at Maria.

"OK," Tony said. "Before we get into the tongue thing…"

Pepper laughed. The three former SHIELD agents claimed it was an inside joke, but Pepper had never dared ask. Some of their inside jokes were just things she didn't think she wanted floating around in her head.

Steve stretched his hand out to take the paper from Clint and looked at the list, then smiled and nodded knowingly.

"What?" Tony asked. "Is Maria "The Agent who can skin you alive just looking at you?""

Maria gave Tony one of those mentioned looks and Tony ducked his head and grimaced.

"She's "The Impressive,"" Steve stopped and looked at Maria. "What do you want to be?"

Maria smiled up at him before answering.

""Magic Elephant" is good for me," she said.

Steve leaned down and rubbed his nose against hers.

"On my team, huh?" he said.

"Always," Maria replied as Steve kissed her.

Tony, Natasha, and Clint erupted in groans.

"Stop," Tony said. "We still have to eat. I ordered a lot and now I'm losing my appetite."

Pepper just smiled. She was happy for the two of them. Of the three couples at the table, each had been through more than most people for one lifetime, but Steve and Maria rarely seemed to get a break from it. Pepper was just glad that this seemed to be a period of peace.

She glanced down the table to look at Hope, but the Rogers' daughter was no longer in her seat. Neither was Gregory.

"Oh, dear," Pepper's sober comment brought the attention of all the adults and they turned their heads to look at the end of the table where Pepper was staring.

"Mia, where are Hope and Gregory?" Clint asked.

"I think they went to the bathroom." Pepper's daughter shrugged and never took her eyes off her coloring.

"Together?" Steve asked, clearly not believing her.

"Yep," was the only reply they received from the normally talkative girl.

Tony looked back at Pepper and shook his head.

"We'd better form a search party," he said.

Pepper was about to reply when someone in the restaurant shouted.

"Oh, my, gosh! There's a kid up in the rafters!"

While the rest of the people in the restaurant turned to look at the ceiling, the six adults at the table of super heroes simply groaned. Finally, they looked up to see Gregory crawling across one of the beams toward a helium balloon that rested on the ceiling.

Tony leaned over to Clint.

"You're sure he's adopted," he commented to his friend.

Clint just looked up at his son and shrugged.

"I guess it rubs off," Clint sighed, then rose from the chair to climb up after his son.

Clint walked over to one of the counters in the kitchen then leapt up to catch one of the lower beams. Half the attention in the room was now drawn to Barton as he pulled himself up to a flat bar and began walking toward his son.

There seemed to be a collective holding of breath as the rest of the patrons watched the supposed drama unfold. This gave Pepper and the others ample opportunity to look around the room for Hope. Natasha spotted her and leaned over to point her out to Steve. The group turned and saw Gregory's usual partner in crime sitting on a railing near the front door and smiling up at the little boy. Pepper glanced at Maria who grimaced and blushed.

Steve rose and walked around the room toward Hope, shaking his head all the while. The little girl jumped slightly when her father tapped her on her shoulder. Then she went for the sad look, with her lip jutting out in a pout. But it didn't look like Steve was buying it.

"She's worse at lying than her father," Natasha commented, dryly.

There was a gasp from the constituents and the Avengers all looked back at Gregory. He stood now in an attempt to reach the string hanging from the balloon. Behind him, Clint sat on the same beam Gregory was standing on and tapped on it with one of the knives he had pulled from some hidden location on his body. It probably looked menacing to the rest of the patrons, but he was simply trying to let Gregory know there was someone behind him so when he turned around he wouldn't be startled to find his father.

Gregory finally plucked the balloon from the ceiling and the restaurant erupted in cheers. Gregory smiled proudly as he turned around to face his father. Clint gave the boy a bemused look and Gregory's own look became more sheepish. When Gregory reached Clint, the man took him in his arms and kissed his forehead then whispered something that completely wiped the smile off the child's face.

"Hey, babe," Clint hollered down to Natasha. "Got a grappling hook on you? I left mine at home."

Natasha just shook her head.

"I've got one," Tony announced loudly and walked over beneath the beam where Clint and Gregory sat.

He lifted his arm, which had his Ironman glove on it, and shot the hook into the ceiling next to the pair.

"Thanks," Clint said as he reached for the rope. He wrapped his arm and leg around it and slowly slid himself down, with Gregory in his free arm. When they were about five feet from the floor, Clint let go and dropped to the ground softly.

The entire restaurant erupted into cheers and hollers again when he touched the ground. Tony bowed, a huge smile on his face.

"Thank you, thank you," he said. "I hope you've enjoyed your dinner entertainment for this evening."

Steve had returned to the table with Hope already and the little girl looked about as happy as Gregory did at the moment. Still, she smiled at the boy when he handed her the balloon he had retrieved, obviously for her. Pepper glanced at Mia who had been coloring the entire time.

"I think Mia hopes if she sits very quietly that we'll forget her involvement in all this," Pepper said, solely for Mia's benefit. Her daughter stilled briefly before returning to her crayons.

The manager came and pulled Clint to the side. The rest of the adults sighed in disappointment.

"Maybe we should have just had dinner in the tower," Maria said.

Clint returned but instead of telling them they had to leave, he sat down and shook his head as he chuckled.

"So?" Natasha asked.

"So, he wants to know when we can come do that again," he said.

"I hope you told him never," Steve said.

"Never?" Tony gasped. "I think we should make this a weekly thing."

Five pairs of obviously displeased eyes bored into Tony.

"Or not. Party poopers," he grumbled.

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**Post A/N: The menu can be found at Red Robin. Clint and Bruce and I ended up there after a series of unfortunate events on the last day of Nutcracker 2014 and I thought it would be a great fan fic. :D Yeah, that actually does happen to me a lot. I'd seek help, but then I'd probably stop writing stories. I'd rather be crazy and write than sane and, well, I have no idea what I'd do. hehe.**


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